Christopher Schmidt

Today I learned that although commuting sucks, commuting in a torrential downpour sucks much much more.

I left the house around 6:40 this morning: no big deal, a few minutes late, but I'd be fine. I'm driving down prospect and realize that I have Jess's wallet in the car with me: no good. So, I have to hightail it back to the house, and in the process, I run into what I will call The Rain.

This is not just any rain. This is The Rain, meaning that in the approximately 10 steps it took to get from the Jetta to the front door to toss Jess's wallet inside, I was drenched to the point that my hair was literally dripping. Got back in the car anyway and got on the road: leanred that no on in Mass is willing to drive fast in rain.

93 had a fair amount of standing water on the left shoulder, which occasionally creeped into the road: ever gone from 65 to 45 in just a second? Water will do that for you. Hydroplaned a couple times, but made my way north and the rain slowed down.

Unlocked the condo for the carpet cleaning people, moved the big stuff that's left in the house out of the way so that they would hopefully be a little bit less upset at the state of the house. Van is dropped off at Autofair for fluid checks and cleaning. Tomorrow night Jess's mom will meet me at Autofair to pick up the car and drop it off at the airport for my parents to pick up when they fly in on Thursday afternoon.

It's a lot easier to bear a long and tedious commute when you know it's got a defined end date. Torrential rain is not fun, especially when it collects on the surface. However, as you're crawling along and peering out through the windscreen, consider how much worse it would be if you were on a bike.